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[Namira]

A cheery voice bursts from Genevieve's collar.

"Hi there! Skipping intros!

"It's dark, there's moving targets and there's shitty shooting! You've got the right idea to bail, bail, bailerino!

"Move quick and don't freak, odds of getting hit are pretty low!"

[Brackie]

She got to cover.

Good.

Now it was his turn.

Baton at the ready, he launched out from behind the post towards the figure, now running away across the pier.

Whoever it was, they shot at Amanda. They shouldn't have done that.

He quickly closed the distance.

The baton's end came down in an arc.

[Maraoone]

Genevieve held out her hand, and Britnee grabbed at her gun instead.

And she pulled back.

And she pulled back.

And she— goddamn it Gen wasn't letting go.

She tried to pull back one more time, grunted, glared at her. Gen glared back.

"The FUCK!? Bitch, FUCK NO!"

Britnee scoffed.

"FUCK YOU THEN!"

She let go. Ran off the crates, hauled herself back up the pier.

She'd been about to run off with Genevieve, she really had been. That was what she'd decided. She'd decided she was gonna do good, help this girl clearly in need of helping. Bring her far away from this place. She wasn't sure why, it just felt like the thing to do. But.

Her fucking ex, Emmett, he had something in his hands, he was running off into the distance. God he had a weapon in his hands.

Further back, there was a blur, someone else running away from Emmett. Someone trying but failing to make her escape.

She was on the pier now. Her arms shook, her heart beat in her throat.

The gun would've been nice. If not a ranged weapon, then as a melee weapon, something to beat his fucking pretty face in, make sure he didn't lay a fucking finger on Diana. But not an option now, Gen wasn't having it, so be it. She'd make do.

The girl that shot at them had collapsed, dragged herself behind some post. There was a window of opportunity here.

Diana had put her life on the line for Britnee. She'd never be able to forgive herself if she didn't return the favor.

Emmett was getting closer. Emmett was getting closer, and Britnee was just standing there.

She pushed herself up, sprinted past the post the girl was behind. Neared the two running away from the pier.

Sloughed off her backpack from both shoulders, grabbed the straps with both hands.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE," she screamed.

And then she swung.

[Ohm]

Diana could hear the bang on the wood as her feet carried her across, the waves splashing underneath as a sound not far from her carried someone else, the whoosh of the wind in her face and her hair as the sound got closer and closer.

But her mind was preoccupied with what if's to notice.

She should've reloaded then and there, she should've followed her down there and gotten her out, she should've told her not to go down there.

She should've...

Thunk

ran faster.

Diana collided with the wood, splayed on the ground. A new sensation in her head that made it hard to think, when she opened her eyes the dark was like a star system, she kept her eyes close and laid her head down and waited.

And then the sound started again further away and got closer. Was it her attacker's partner, come to finish the job?

Her worry faded once their voice made itself known and a smile crept onto her face.

The entrance, the rescue, the lines and the fury beneath it all. It all told a story, and Diana only now realised what her role needed to be.

And what Britnee's could be.

[Lord_Shadow]

What in the absolute fuck fucking FUCK!?!

So Gen needed sleep badly and was probably on the verge of passing out peacefully on the pier before shit went down.

Then Britnee shows up and is like 'hey come with me if you want to live'

Then the shots ring out

THEN THIS FUCKING BITCH drops to the ground

Then Gen helps her up

THEN THIS FUCKING BITCH tries to fucking Jodi her ass

No

No

Ye–NO

And a special FUCK NO on top

Forget the fact that the voice from her collar clearly was not Emmy

Forget that the shooting seemed to have stopped long enough to get away

Forget all of that shit

"What the absolute fuck!?!"

She shook her head, knowing that the adrenaline and stuff was wearing off

A dull pain crept up on her shoulder

She kept her grip on the gun

She could see the blood on the pier in the moonlight

Blood that wasn't hers

She felt a twang of guilt

She grimaced

She grit her teeth

She ran and didn't bother to look at where the shooter(s?) were

Run away Gen, forget this ever happened

((Genevieve Erickson continued in This is Where I Died))

[Spindarene]

As Amanda lay trembling behind the jetty post, she could hear screams and thuds coming from the direction where her shooter was. Where Emmett had ran. Amanda buried her head in her right arm and sobbed into it, cringing each time she breathed as the muscle contractions aggravated the wound in her side. She dragged her left hand over to her side and pressed down on it, which made it hurt more but also made her feel more stable, somehow. Her side was wet and sticky, but she didn't dare look at it. All she could handle was the pain, the visual would be too much.

The sounds of the fight made her want to go over there, to do something, but she couldn't move. She cringed with each sound, imagining Emmett being beaten bloody by faceless assailants. Why had he done it? Why had he left her? Why had he run towards her shooter? Had he seen an opportunity to eliminate the threat? Or, a small voice in her head said, was he fighting for her? The thought made her even sadder and more scared as she listened to the fight. She needed him to come back. She needed him here, now. Suddenly, it felt like Emmett was on another planet. He was gone, and she might never see him again.

[Brackie]

Suddenly it was her.

A girl a boy once knew, a girl a boy once left, a girl who got angry at the boy.

Her bag clocked him in the side, sending the staff off course.

He spun backwards, his back hitting a jetty post.

The arm came down to the jetty, and the weapon exploded.

The skin ripped on his hands as it flung itself into the sea.

The boy couldn't feel it.

He swung his own bag back at the two in an arc.

His feet launched him away from the cloud.

Back to Amanda's post.

Emmett moved to pull Amanda to her feet. Things had gone south, they were both wounded, her more than him, and keeping Amanda alive right now was far more concerning than getting her kills.

"Let's go let's go let's go let's-"

[Maraoone]

Britnee hadn't expected that to work. She'd swung her bag at him because it was all she had on hand.

A gunshot rang across the air once more, she saw Emmett recoil. She would've laughed if she had the time.

A bag slammed into her chest, knocked the wind out of her, but he was running away anyways so it didn't matter.

Emmett was in retreat now, trying to pull up that other girl who'd shot at them, the one whose name she still didn't know. They were in retreat. She had the advantage. Part of her thought of pressing the advantage, pulling out the bottle of acid she had, pouring it on them to make sure they could never, ever lay a finger on Dee or anyone else ever again.

She could do that.

But she didn't.

She shook her head violently. That was part of another route. One she wanted nothing to do with.

And, who was to say neither of them would recover immediately? They'd never get a better chance to leave, best to just take the opportunity and fucking go.

And so, she too pulled a companion up from the ground, wore her bag around her shoulders again. And off she ran, far away from the floating cargo cases, Dee in hand, wound in her side pulsating, bleeding, draining.

((Britnee Joyner continues in Wait a Minute!))

[Ohm]

More sounds occurred above her, a scuffle of sorts. Grunts echoing through the night and the dark, before a sudden gunshot interrupted it all. The shock of it made her drop her smile momentarily.

And on queue, as if he was at the starting line of a race, her attacker ran off with footsteps going further and further away from them.

And despite the pain from the left side of her head and face, Diana kept her smile. A slight, curved smile as she felt herself being lifted up, her left arm slung around Brtinee's shoulders. Her right clenching her gun.

She tried to assist, keep her legs steady and planted one foot in front of the other as they walked briskly away from the docks.

And off they went, into the dark and away to tomorrow.

(Diana McIntyre continued elsewhere.)

[Spindarene]

Amanda didn't know how long she'd laid there on the ground, useless, trying to block out the sounds of the fight.

Then, suddenly, she felt the pressure of hands on her body, warm arms wrapping around her, lifting her up. She heard Emmett's voice in her ear, urgently telling her to move. She whimpered with a mixture of pain and gratitude and did her best to obey, clumsily following his movements.

((Amanda Brooks continued in I Thought We'd Stay Together))

[Brackie]

At some point they could stop.

But it wasn't now.

((Emmett Purcell continued elsewhere))